For those able to witness it, yesterday’s solar eclipse presented a stunning image, even if you aren’t into astrology or astronomy. But for those of us intrigued by, work in or study astrology, yesterday’s event signals change. Change isn’t easy. In fact most of us resist it on a sliding scale that ranges from extreme resistance, to ‘well this will be interesting’ (that would be the mutable signs!). Solar eclipses work from the outside in. In other words, our external environment changes in a way that affects us internally. Specifically how this manifests depends on one’s own birth chart and what if any, planets and houses are triggered.

This said, it’s important not to lose perspective here. From an evolutional perspective, eclipses are the universe’s tool to help us grow and advance within our soul’s agenda. Thus, the energized shift doesn’t necessarily have to be a massive event; it can be something smaller but nevertheless important to our personal journey as it stimulates internal change within us that’s significant in some way. And, sometimes this shift isn’t even realized until after the fact. Yesterday’s eclipse took place at 00 degrees Gemini, so for example if your birthday was yesterday or within five days, you can expect some effect. The same is true if you have natal aspects 0 to 4 degrees in the other air signs, Libra or Aquarius…or opposite Gemini, Sagittarius, or Sag’s fire partners, Aries or Leo.

Much is written about the effect of both solar and lunar eclipses and to be honest, there are some astrologers who don’t assign much weight to them at all; but astrology is about patterns and as eclipses always come in pairs roughly 5 ½ to 6 months apart, patterns seem inevitable. Personally, I find it fascinating to look at these patterns closely. As for this pair, last November 24th we had a solar eclipse at 2 degrees Sagittarius , the opposite sign of Gemini. If yesterday’s event affects your natal chart, think of the November eclipse as a type of preview…an introduction to the initial energy intensified by yesterday’s new moon. It’s almost as if the first event gives you time to absorb the energy, get used to it so that you’ll be ready for the second act. Think back to last November 24th and the days that followed…see if you can make a connection to events and shifts within you…you might just see a pattern! And just when we think we can exhale….guess what? June 3rd brings the second of the Gemini/Sagittarius Lunar eclipse pair !

Last night’s full moon in Scorpio is the belle of the ball right now. Her brilliance is not only lit up by the Taurus Sun but her photographs are all over the news media, Facebook, Google, NASA and endless other sources. How stunning she is in her perigee, a point in the moon’s orbit that at unique times brings the moon closest to Earth. She seems so close that we can almost reach out and touch her! Aside from the breath taking visual, as always there’s meaning here through the evolutionary astrological lens.

Full moons are always about polarity highlighting particular themes that have come to a ‘full culmination’ point within our personal evolutionary process. For a moon in Scorpio change is upon us. We are urged to consider that which is emotionally deep within …something that’s been hidden until now needing to be looked at ‘in the light’. It might be very old ‘stuff’ wanting to be healed from prior times in this life or memories of past lives.

The energy of the opposing Taurus Sun encourages us to take the time with ourselves for this shift. Taurus is methodical, grounded and careful. Ruled by Venus, Taurus loves beauty and nature. Perhaps spending time in nature in an environment that’s peaceful and nurturing is just what’s called for.

There are several of Dr. Edward Bach’s flower remedies that can support this healing. Those readily coming to mind are Agrimony, Star of Bethlehem and Walnut. Agrimony helps us to feel safe in acknowledging within ourselves and verbally to others, those things which have been hidden, so that we might receive the external support to help us through the healing. Star of Bethlehem as I have written in other posts, is considered by those of us who are practitioners, as the umbrella remedy. Dr. Bach in so many words referred to it as the ‘ultimate healer of all wounds’…I have never met anyone in over 20 years who cannot benefit from this beautiful and extremely powerful remedy. As a reminder ,it’s one of the five in Bach’s ‘Rescue Remedy’ or the‘Five Flower Formula’ from Healing Herbs Ltd. Finally, Walnut…the classic choice for life’s transitions. Walnut helps us to move forward to get our foot over the threshold and ‘cut the ties that bind.’

So whatever needs to come to light in your life, whatever needs to be discarded through healing so that you can move on, look to the embracing energy of this beautiful full moon in her glory and add these remedies to your ‘healing kit’.

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that recently I’ve been focusing on the subject of writing as a craft instead of my earlier blogs on Dr. Bach’s flower remedies. However, yesterday’s Facebook post by a friend regarding the distressing news of yet another young boy taking his life after relentless bullying because he is gay has caused me to take pause here and briefly return to the subject of Bach’s remedies and particularly Bach’s Holly which I blogged on last year.

I’ve always found the dynamics of Dr. Bach’s Holly to be among one of the more fascinating of the 38. Classically, Bach described it for ‘those things that vex the mind’; specifically, greed, envy and jealously. But additionally, Holly, like many of the remedies, has a much deeper back story.

To begin, the leaves of the Holly bush reach out with sharp stickers that can be viewed(and experienced painfully!) as a protective barrier against danger, while the Holly berries are a vibrant red, perhaps reflecting rage and anger. Over the years of working with people through private practice, workshops and training retail staff, I’ve observed a consistency of drivers behind those who manifest the negative Holly state of ‘in your face anger and rage’… it’s a deep wounding and sensitivity within the person, typically at the unconscious level.

Somewhere in their emotional history, these people have experienced some type of aggression themselves. It could be physical, emotion or both; it could be in this life, in a past life or both. The bottom line is that the heart Chakra has closed down, fear is the driver and the agenda is emotional protection at all costs.

In the case of bullies (and others) the perception is skewed as it is in all negative states of Bach’s 38 remedies. In the negative Holly state, the interpretation ironically, is that everyone around them is on the attack toward them; danger is in the air. Thus, the protective reaction becomes outwardly defensive through aggression and vindictive behavior…it can manifest as emotional manipulation, taunting or ridiculing as Kenneth Weishuhn in Iowa experienced and/or physical abuse. The negative Holly state IS THE BULLY ON THE PLAYGROUND.

However, the positive action of the Holly remedy is one that softens the reactive fear driving the aggressive behavior and opens the heart Chakra…the perception is shifted to reality versus a skewed interpretation of both the internal and external personal landscape. Holly gives permission to ‘step back’ and reconsider our reality. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could put Holly in our water source!

If you’re wondering why particular aspects(not to use a pun) of your life have slowed down recently, it very well could be related to the warrior planet Mars’, biennial shift in motion. On January 23rd Mars turned ‘retrograde’ and will not station ‘direct’ again until April 13th. As I have written in previous postings, any time a planet shifts into what astrologers refer to as ‘retrograde motion’ (when a planet ‘appears’ to be moving backwards in the sky), the message of that planet’s energy is for us to quiet down and go within. What we are to consider during these times is where and how the energetic representation relates to our actions and in our lives.

Mars with its fiery warrior energy is currently in the sign of the Virgin, Virgo…the organizer, analyzer, perfecter…the seer of how things could be, the idealist…the server. But in her idealism and self-inflicted drive to grow, Virgo can be hypercritical and merciless in her self-evaluation, deficient in her self-esteem, particularly when combined with the warrior energy of Mars…well, you get the picture.

For the next few months whether we like it or not, we have the opportunity to take a breath in order to contemplate what and were we need to re-evaluate our behavior and goals. Perhaps we need to consider making a course correction. Are there areas where we need to make serious changes? What isn’t working in our lives and needs to go? Where do we need to concentrate on building our self-esteem? To contemplate and then carry out the action is not an easy task by any means and begs the question, where do we start?

By looking at current transit placement in our natal chart, we can find clues to these answers. Whatever house(circumstance of life) in which Mars has landed gives us the answer. Is it the 10th… our work in world? Or perhaps it’s the 7th where lasting partnerships and collaborations, reside. Maybe it’s the double whammy of the 2nd which represents among other things, our self-esteem and self-value!

Regardless of where Mars is sitting for his months of retrograde motion, frustration is characteristic of the energy we can feel which can be draining emotionally and physically. However help is on the way in Dr. Edward Bach’s ‘Oak’ flower remedy. When I teach about Oak in Bach’s repertoire of his 38 the flower remedies, I always envision it as the ‘energizer bunny’. Its life force gives us strength to ‘carry on’ by providing us the stamina and sustainability we need. The assistance found through Oak is not only for times of planetary retrogrades…we can call upon Oak during a particularly challenging illness or struggle when life seems to have been derailed through circumstances or ill judgement…any time when we feel we have don’t have ‘it’ in us to keep going. As I said, the energizer bunny!

The ancient Norse Rune, Nauthiz puts the energetic interpretation of a Mars retrograde quite well: “This is a time to…restore, if not harmony, at least balance. So mend, restore, redress—when fishermen can’t go to sea they repair nets. Let the Constraints of time serve you in righting your relationship to your Self. Be mindful that rectification comes before progress…consider the uses of adversity.”(The Book of Runes-Ralph Blum)

Admittedly, it has been almost two months since I last blogged…definitely a faux-pah in the eyes of the blogging police. However, I have a good excuse for this temporary absence…at least in my mind and it falls into the category of ‘there are no accidents’.

It has been almost 20 years since I attended my last mystery/thriller writer’s conference, but at Thanksgiving an opportunity appeared (notice I did not say, ‘by accident’) out of the blue for me to attend such a conference that was held in Chicago this past weekend. The important thing about this conference was that not only did it offer the opportunity to really schmooz with some of the best mystery/thriller writers we have, but to ‘live pitch’ one’s latest project to some of the country’s top literary agents… but there was a catch.

In order to do this, I had to finish my ‘current project’ which I’d already been working on since last spring. The expression, ‘pedal to the metal’ was an understatement as I became glued to my keyboard(and my wonderful, selfless editor up in Minnesota) racing against the clock, while dosing myself with numerous flower remedies. I hardly saw anyone and only had clean clothes thanks to my husband who took over laundry and shopping duties…Christmas? When did that happen? You get the picture. Thus my long apology for the silence as I endeavor to get back to work!

The outcome of this effort is that the book is done, the conference was a success and my pitch was a success insofar that agents want to see the full manuscript….so now I wait. Even if I receive an offer for representation there’s no guarantee a publisher will offer a contract…it’s a dicey business that’s becoming more chaotic by the day(note the current stand off between Amazon and BN), but writers are compelled to write, myself included, the torpedoes be damned.

In the midst of all of this effort, my astrological work and studies languished(along with the previously mentioned laundry and shopping duties). Only today did I realize we are under the influence of Leo’s shinning full moon, lit by the fire of February’s Aquarius Sun. Astrologically, Leo rules our heart and creativity for it is from the heart that this authentic piece of ourselves resides. Aquarius, the sign of the collective is ruled by that rebel of the planets, Uranus with its mental energy and vision. If it weren’t for Uranus thinking out of the box, we’d all be still writing on clay tablets and I don’t mean IPads! So what a better ‘opportunity’ than to sit in the energy of this full moon where we can each contemplate the job that is uniquely ours, that evolutionarily, we came to do?

This pairing of the Leo full moon and the Aquarius sun reflects the Divine message that we are to align our heart and head in carrying out the job, whatever that may be. One thing’s for sure…each of us has one! And if you need a little self-confidence, try some of Dr.Bach’s Larch flower remedy….having drunk a bottle of it this past weekend, I highly recommend it!